Yuri Gripas/Reuters
The Department of Homeland Security has created a grant to train high school students to respond to mass casualty events. The “School-Age Trauma Training” program created by the $1.8 million grant will give children “the knowledge necessary to stabilize the injured and control severe bleeding until first responders arrive on the scene,” according to procurement documents. The documents do not specify what type of mass casualty events students will be trained for, but the grant follows several high-profile school shootings. “Similar to how students learn health education and driver’s education, they must learn proper bleeding control techniques using commonly available materials; including how to use their hands, dressings and tourniquets,” the records said. Students will also be given “information on how to use one’s hands to apply pressure to a wound when nothing else is immediately available.” The documents also outline a “Strategic Business Plan” to get donations to keep the program going.